Welcome To The FECC Forum - More than 50 Million visitors can't be wrong

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Tue Dec 14, 2010 11:52 am

KingOfTheJungle wrote:PEP,I will say in Bangs defense, that I don't think he was intending to slander Elvis the way Goldman clearly was by saying he was "too fat" in 71. This just shows how the effect of time can color memories. Not everyone has the grasp of Elvis's physical and emotional fluctuations that we hardcore fans do. I think we've established that he was actually referring to Elvis 1972 Detroit show rather than 71, and I can see how if the last mental image of Elvis one retained was the 68 Special, or the idealized 1957-era "Loving You" Elvis, that they could think that 1972 era Elvis was "too fat". He doesn't say "bloated" or "pudgy" or "blimp like", just "too fat", which certainly conveys a slighter degree. So, as with many things concerning Elvis, how good he looked at any given time in the 70's is really a matter of relativity, depending on what you are comparing it to. Elvis's huge sideburns made him look heavier than he was in the early 70's, so that probably had something to do with it as well.

While it's always regrettable to see the line of Elvis's deteriorating physical health blurred, it's a rather simple mistake for one to make. I consider myself a rather big fan of James Brown, and I saw him twice, but I couldn't tell you exactly what year the first gig was to save my life. If i took a guess, I would probably be off by a year or two. I need to see if I can find any of the other time Bangs talked about Elvis to post that as well. I think it would help alot of people understand where he is coming from. He had an almost worshipful reverence for the pre-Army Elvis that I think compounds his disappointment that Elvis wasn't ever quite the same way again. It's as if the succession of "new" Elvis's (EIB-era, movie era, comeback, Vegas) were constant reminders of the inability to recapture the innocent idealism of youth.

One thing I can relate to Elvis very much is that I am an only child who was very close to my mother. When my mother died young, unexpectedly when I was 29, it cast a pall on everything that has come since. Elvis was devastated of course when his mother died but I'm sure he always thought about that maybe if he had never became famous, she would have still been alive. That made him consciously or unconsciously on some level resent his career and fame which made it impossible to ever recapture that innocent idealism. I'm sure on some level he blamed his career for her death. That cast a pall over the rest of his life that he never was able to shake. That may have been the driving force that sent him in his long dive into drugs and indifference. Most around him say he was never the same after her death. He felt alone for the rest of his life.

What a crushing blow that must have been; to have all your wildest dreams come true 100 times over, only to have the most important person in your life die suddenly at the height of it all.

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Tue Dec 14, 2010 3:28 pm

elvis-fan wrote:

"I see him as being more like the Pentagon, a giant armored institution nobody knows anything about except that its power is legendary."

What an impactful, moving statement about Elvis...The article was a pleasure to read... thank you, Doc.

YES!! Thanks for pointing that out, Brad, because I felt the same way when I read that...

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Fri Dec 17, 2010 7:24 am

elvis-fan wrote:

"I see him as being more like the Pentagon, a giant armored institution nobody knows anything about except that its power is legendary."

What an impactful, moving statement about Elvis...The article was a pleasure to read... thank you, Doc.

Thanks, elvis-fan.

That quote is but one of many profound observations from a superb writer.

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Fri Dec 17, 2010 4:51 pm

Jokerlola wrote:

KingOfTheJungle wrote:PEP,I will say in Bangs defense, that I don't think he was intending to slander Elvis the way Goldman clearly was by saying he was "too fat" in 71. This just shows how the effect of time can color memories. Not everyone has the grasp of Elvis's physical and emotional fluctuations that we hardcore fans do. I think we've established that he was actually referring to Elvis 1972 Detroit show rather than 71, and I can see how if the last mental image of Elvis one retained was the 68 Special, or the idealized 1957-era "Loving You" Elvis, that they could think that 1972 era Elvis was "too fat". He doesn't say "bloated" or "pudgy" or "blimp like", just "too fat", which certainly conveys a slighter degree. So, as with many things concerning Elvis, how good he looked at any given time in the 70's is really a matter of relativity, depending on what you are comparing it to. Elvis's huge sideburns made him look heavier than he was in the early 70's, so that probably had something to do with it as well.

While it's always regrettable to see the line of Elvis's deteriorating physical health blurred, it's a rather simple mistake for one to make. I consider myself a rather big fan of James Brown, and I saw him twice, but I couldn't tell you exactly what year the first gig was to save my life. If i took a guess, I would probably be off by a year or two. I need to see if I can find any of the other time Bangs talked about Elvis to post that as well. I think it would help alot of people understand where he is coming from. He had an almost worshipful reverence for the pre-Army Elvis that I think compounds his disappointment that Elvis wasn't ever quite the same way again. It's as if the succession of "new" Elvis's (EIB-era, movie era, comeback, Vegas) were constant reminders of the inability to recapture the innocent idealism of youth.

One thing I can relate to Elvis very much is that I am an only child who was very close to my mother. When my mother died young, unexpectedly when I was 29, it cast a pall on everything that has come since. Elvis was devastated of course when his mother died but I'm sure he always thought about that maybe if he had never became famous, she would have still been alive. That made him consciously or unconsciously on some level resent his career and fame which made it impossible to ever recapture that innocent idealism. I'm sure on some level he blamed his career for her death. That cast a pall over the rest of his life that he never was able to shake. That may have been the driving force that sent him in his long dive into drugs and indifference. Most around him say he was never the same after her death. He felt alone for the rest of his life.

What a crushing blow that must have been; to have all your wildest dreams come true 100 times over, only to have the most important person in your life die suddenly at the height of it all.

A very insightful and truthful comment.

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Fri Dec 17, 2010 5:41 pm

Thanks so much for sharing Doc - it's a fascinating piece of writing, regardless of the slight inaccuracies.

Slightly off topic, but related - for anyone who's not seen it, I can't recommend the movie "Almost Famous" enough, which follows an aspiring young rock journo on tour with a band about to break through, writing a story for Rolling Stone, and the young journo is mentored by Lester Bangs, played in a fantastic performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Sat Dec 18, 2010 5:55 am

DarrylMac wrote:Thanks so much for sharing Doc - it's a fascinating piece of writing, regardless of the slight inaccuracies.

I don't see any inaccuracies in the piece, it's just his slant on the subject.

DarrylMac wrote:Slightly off topic, but related - for anyone who's not seen it, I can't recommend the movie "Almost Famous" enough, which follows an aspiring young rock journo on tour with a band about to break through, writing a story for Rolling Stone, and the young journo is mentored by Lester Bangs, played in a fantastic performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The film is a joy on many levels, and captures the rock 'n' roll experience from many perspectives.

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Mon Dec 27, 2010 4:44 pm

drjohncarpenter wrote:Originally published as “How Long Will We Care?” -- below is perhaps the single greatest Presley obituary. Written by Lester Bangs for the Village Voice in August 1977, it's not available on the internet.

At least, not until now. I have highlighted the final paragraph, it is so eloquent.

Rock critic Lester Bangs, New York, circa 1982

"How Long Will We Care?" By Lester BangsVillage Voice, August 29, 1977

Where were you when Elvis died? What were you doing and what did it give you an excuse to do with the rest of your day? That's what we'll be talking about in the future when we remember this grand occasion. Like Pearl Harbor or JFK's assassination, it boiled down to individual reminiscences, which is perhaps as it should be, because in spite of his greatness, etc., etc., Elvis had left us each alone as he was; I mean, he wasn't exactly a Man of the People anymore, if you get my drift. If you don't I will drift even further, away from Elvis into contemplation of why all our public heroes seem to reinforce our own solitude.

The ultimate sin of any performer is contempt for the audience. Those who indulge in it will ultimately reap the scorn of those they've dumped on, whether they live forever like Andy Paleface Warhol or die fashionably early like Lenny Bruce, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday. The two things that distinguish those deaths from Elvis's (he and they having drug habits vaguely in common) were that all of them died on the outside looking in and none of them took their audience for granted. Which is why it's just a little bit harder for me to see Elvis as a tragic figure; I see him as being more like the Pentagon, a giant armored institution nobody knows anything about except that its power is legendary.

Obviously we all liked Elvis better than the Pentagon, but look at what a paltry statement that is. In the end, Elvis's scorn for his fans as manifested in "new" albums full of previously released material and one new song to make sure all us suckers would buy it was mirrored in the scorn we all secretly or not so secretly felt for a man who came closer to godhood than Carlos Castaneda until military conscription tamed and revealed him for the dumb lackey he always was in the first place. And ever since, for almost two decades now, we've been waiting for him to get wild again, fools that we are, and he probably knew better than any of us in his heart of hearts that it was never gonna happen again, his heart of hearts so obviously not being our collective heart of hearts, he being so obviously just some poor dumb Southern boy with a Big Daddy manager to screen the world for him and filter out anything which might erode his status as big strapping baby bringing home the bucks, and finally being sort of perversely celebrated at least by rock critics for his utter contempt for whoever cared about him.

And Elvis was perverse; only a true pervert could put out something like "Having Fun with Elvis On Stage", that album released three or so years back which consisted entirely of between-song onstage patter so redundant it would make both Willy Burroughs and Gert Stein blush. Elvis was into marketing boredom when Andy Warhol was still doing shoe ads, but Elvis's sin was his failure to realize that his fans were not perverse - they loved him without qualification, no matter what he dumped on them they loyally lapped it up, and that's why I feel a hell of a lot sorrier for all those poor jerks than for Elvis himself. I mean, who's left they can stand all night in the rain for? Nobody, and the true tragedy is the tragedy of an entire generation which refuses to give up its adolescence even as it feels its menopausal paunch begin to blossom and its hair recede over the horizon - along with Elvis and everything else they once thought they believed in. Will they care in five years what he's been doing for the last twenty?

Sure, Elvis's death is a relatively minor ironic variant on the future-shock mazurka, and perhaps the most significant thing about Elvis's exit is that the entire history of the seventies has been retreads and brutal demystification; three of Elvis's ex-bodyguards recently got together with this hacker from the New York Post and whipped up a book which dosed us with all the dirt we'd yearned for for so long. Elvis was the last of our sacred cows to be publicly mutilated; everybody knows Keith Richard likes his junk, but when Elvis went onstage in a stupor nobody breathed a hint of "Quaalude...." In a way, this was both good and bad, good because Elvis wasn't encouraging other people to think it was cool to be a walking Physicians' Desk Reference, bad because Elvis stood for that Nixonian Secrecy-as-Virtue which was passed off as the essence of Americanism for a few years there. In a sense he could be seen not only as a phenomenon that exploded in the fifties to help shape the psychic jailbreak of the sixties but ultimately as a perfect cultural expression of what the Nixon years were all about. Not that he prospered more then, but that his passion for the privacy of potentates allowed him to get away with almost literal murder, certainly with the symbolic rape of his fans, meaning that we might all do better to think about waving good-bye with one upraised finger.

I got the news of Elvis's death while drinking beer with a friend and fellow music journalist on his fire escape on 21st Street in Chelsea. Chelsea is a good neighborhood; in spite of the fact that the insane woman who lives upstairs keeps him awake all night every night with her rants at no one, my friend stays there because he likes the sense of community within diversity in that neighborhood: old-time card-carrying Communists live in his building alongside people of every persuasion popularly lumped as "ethnic." When we heard about Elvis we knew a wake was in order, so I went out to the deli for a case of beer. As I left the building I passed some Latin guys hanging out by the front door. "Heard the news? Elvis is dead!" I told them. They looked at me with contemptuous indifference. So What. Maybe if I had told them Donna Summer was dead I might have gotten a reaction; I do recall walking in this neighborhood wearing a T-shirt that said "Disco Sucks" with a vast unamused muttering in my wake, which only goes to show that not for everyone was Elvis the still-reigning King of Rock 'n' Roll, in fact not for everyone is rock 'n' roll the still-reigning music. By now, each citizen has found his own little obsessive corner to blast his brain in: as the sixties were supremely narcissistic, solipsism's what the seventies have been about, and nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the world of "pop" music. And Elvis may have been the greatest solipsist of all.

I asked for two six-packs at the deli and told the guy behind the counter the news. He looked fifty years old, greying, big belly, life still in his eyes, and he said: "Sh.it, that's too bad. I guess our only hope now is if the Beatles get back together."

Fifty years old.

I told him I thought that would be the biggest anticlimax in history and that the best thing the Stones could do now would be to break up and spare us all further embarrassments.

He laughed, and gave me directions to a meat market down the street. There I asked the counterman the same question I had been asking everyone. He was in his fifties too, and he said, "You know what? I don't care that bastard's dead. I took my wife to see him in Vegas in '73, we paid fourteen dollars a ticket, and he came out and sang for twenty minutes. Then he fell down. Then he stood up and sang a couple more songs, then he fell down again. Finally he said, 'well, sh.it, I might as well sing sitting as standing.' So he squatted on the stage and asked the band what song they wanted to do next, but before they could answer he was complaining about the lights. 'They're too bright,' he says. 'They hurt my eyes. Put 'em out or I don't sing a note.' So they do. So me and my wife are sitting in total blackness listening to this guy sing songs we knew and loved, and I ain't just talking about his old goddam songs, but he totally butchered all of 'em. Fu.ck him. I'm not saying I'm glad he's dead, but I know one thing: I got taken when I went to see Elvis Presley."

I got taken too the one time I saw Elvis, but in a totally different way. It was the autumn of 1971, and two tickets to an Elvis show turned up at the offices of Creem magazine, where I was then employed. It was decided that those staff members who had never had the privilege of witnessing Elvis should get the tickets, which was how me and art director Charlie Auringer ended up in nearly the front row of the biggest arena in Detroit. Earlier Charlie had said, "Do you realize how much we could get if we sold these fu.cking things?" I didn't, but how precious they were became totally clear the instant Elvis sauntered onto the stage. He was the only male performer I have ever seen to whom I responded sexually; it wasn't real arousal, rather an erection of the heart, when I looked at him I went mad with desire and envy and worship and self-projection. I mean, Mick Jagger, whom I saw as far back as 1964 and twice in '65, never even came close.

There was Elvis, dressed up in this ridiculous white suit which looked like some studded Arthurian castle, and he was too fat, and the buckle on his belt was as big as your head except that your head is not made of solid gold, and any lesser man would have been the spittin' image of a Neil Diamond damfool in such a getup, but on Elvis it fit. What didn't? No matter how lousy his records ever got, no matter how intently he pursued mediocrity, there was still some hint, some flash left over from the days when...well, I wasn't there, so I won't presume to comment. But I will say this: Elvis Presley was the man who brought overt blatant vulgar sexual frenzy to the popular arts in America (and thereby to the nation itself, since putting "popular arts" and "America" in the same sentence seems almost redundant). It has been said that he was the first white to sing like a black person, which is untrue in terms of hard facts but totally true in terms of cultural impact. But what's more crucial is that when Elvis started wiggling his hips and Ed Sullivan refused to show it, the entire country went into a paroxysm of sexual frustration leading to abiding discontent which culminated in the explosion of psychedelic-militant folklore which was the sixties.

I mean, don't tell me about Lenny Bruce, man - Lenny Bruce said dirty words in public and obtained a kind of consensual martyrdom. Plus which Lenny Bruce was hip, too goddam hip if you ask me, which was his undoing, whereas Elvis was not hip at all, Elvis was a goddam truck driver who worshipped his mother and would never say sh.it or fu.ck around her, and Elvis alerted America to the fact that it had a groin with imperatives that had been stifled. Lenny Bruce demonstrated how far you could push a society as repressed as ours and how much you could get away with, but Elvis kicked "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window" out the window and replaced it with "Let's fu.ck." The rest of us are still reeling from the impact. Sexual chaos reigns currently, but out of chaos may flow true understanding and harmony, and either way Elvis almost singlehandedly opened the floodgates. That night in Detroit, a night I will never forget, he had but to ever so slightly move one shoulder muscle, not even a shrug, and the girls in the gallery hit by its ray screamed, fainted, howled in heat. Literally, every time this man moved any part of his body the slightest centimeter, tens or tens of thousands of people went berserk. Not Sinatra, not Jagger, not the Beatles, nobody you can come up with ever elicited such hysteria among so many. And this after a decade and a half of crappy records, of making a point of not trying.

If love truly is going out of fashion forever, which I do not believe, then along with our nurtured indifference to each other will be an even more contemptuous indifference to each others' objects of reverence. I thought it was Iggy Stooge, you thought it was Joni Mitchell or whoever else seemed to speak for your own private, entirely circumscribed situation's many pains and few ecstasies. We will continue to fragment in this manner, because solipsism holds all the cards at present; it is a king whose domain engulfs even Elvis's. But I can guarantee you one thing: we will never again agree on anything as we agreed on Elvis. So I won't bother saying good-bye to his corpse. I will say good-bye to you.

Also collected as "Where Were You When Elvis Died?" - Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, edited by Greil Marcus and published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1987

Look at the date when this article was posted on the internet. August 16, 2005.

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Good Time Charlie wrote:... It didn't strike any sort of resonance with me. He doesn't even come close to writing the greatest Presley obituary.

Too bad for you. It is a well-regarded and influential essay.

It's such a well-regarded and influential essay that in 25 years of studying the Elvis legend this is the first time I have ever seen it! I wonder how many other collectors have seen this well-regarded and influential piece?

elvisonline

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:34 pm

elvisonline wrote:

drjohncarpenter wrote:

Good Time Charlie wrote:... It didn't strike any sort of resonance with me. He doesn't even come close to writing the greatest Presley obituary.

Too bad for you. It is a well-regarded and influential essay.

It's such a well-regarded and influential essay that in 25 years of studying the Elvis legend this is the first time I have ever seen it! I wonder how many other collectors have seen this well-regarded and influential piece?

elvisonline

It is well-regarded in critical music circles not located in the center of Elvisland. Elvis "collectors" only seem to seek out or care about items that validate their own opinions. I assume you have never heard of Lester Bangs before this?

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:51 pm

Frankie Teardrop wrote:It is well-regarded in critical music circles not located in the center of Elvisland. Elvis "collectors" only seem to seek out or care about items that validate their own opinions. I assume you have never heard of Lester Bangs before this?

I don't think that's a fair statement at all. It seems to me the reaction to the piece here has been largely positive, and you can't help but expect a few Elvis fans will react defensively to criticism of Elvis's health and weight in later years, since it seems there is almost no discussion Elvis in the mainstream rock press without some backhanded dismissal of Elvis's career in his later years. While I personally have explained why I really love this piece and Bangs work in general, I can very clearly understand that it's not something everybody will react positively to.

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:28 pm

3577 wrote:Look at the date when this article was posted on the internet. August 16, 2005.

Your crucial point was addressed on page 3 of this topic.

It's helpful to read all the extant pages before formulating a reply.

Here is my post (again):

Yes, but this transcription has numerous errors, and does not use the original title.

The one I posted does, and avoids those errors, as it was taken from my copy of the original, 1977 Village Voice issue. I hope that clears up any confusion for you.

If you choose to post again, please attempt a response to the article, one of the greatest ever written on the subject of Elvis Presley. Good luck!

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:36 pm

elvisonline wrote:

drjohncarpenter wrote:

Good Time Charlie wrote:... It didn't strike any sort of resonance with me. He doesn't even come close to writing the greatest Presley obituary.

Too bad for you. It is a well-regarded and influential essay.

It's such a well-regarded and influential essay that in 25 years of studying the Elvis legend this is the first time I have ever seen it! I wonder how many other collectors have seen this well-regarded and influential piece?

You are very likely not a reader of the Village Voice, general rock criticism, articles on popular culture or the work of Lester Bangs.

But now that you have been given access to the classic, original piece as printed in 1977, do let us know what you think!

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Mon Dec 27, 2010 10:34 pm

drjohncarpenter wrote:

3577 wrote:Look at the date when this article was posted on the internet. August 16, 2005.

Your crucial point was addressed on page 3 of this topic.

It's helpful to read all the extant pages before formulating a reply.

Here is my post (again):

Yes, but this transcription has numerous errors, and does not use the original title.

The one I posted does, and avoids those errors, as it was taken from my copy of the original, 1977 Village Voice issue. I hope that clears up any confusion for you.

If you choose to post again, please attempt a response to the article, one of the greatest ever written on the subject of Elvis Presley. Good luck!

Whatever! Painful, isn't it? As long as you keep putting people down with your sarcastic behaviour on this board, have a taste of your own recepy.

Enjoy your meal.

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Mon Dec 27, 2010 10:36 pm

I did read it and I can tell this guy could write, but the content of the article..I don't know..not my thing..I really don't care a lot what journalists or writers write about Elvis anymore nowadays. I do read them (also a lot of books) and then I have my own thoughts and opinions about it. But mostly they do not have any influence on my thoughts and the way I think and feel about Elvis...

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Tue Dec 28, 2010 5:56 am

3577 wrote:Whatever! Painful, isn't it?

Reading your posts? Yes, it is.

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Tue Dec 28, 2010 6:24 am

Frankie Teardrop wrote:WHO CARES WHEN IT WAS POSTED ON THE INTERNET?

3577 needs to probably stop trying to pick a fight with people...i have been sick recently and just scammin' through new post and old alike as i dont feel much like posting being sick and i see it over and over.y?

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Wed Aug 29, 2012 10:23 pm

Ran across this today.

Unlikely Teachers

Maria Bustillos pens an appreciation for music critic Lester Bangs and his eclectic literary tastes:

Every reader, starting from childhood, draws his own map of the world of letters. There is liable to be some outside guidance here and there, naturally. Certain landmarks are supplied to us, say in English class. But teachers aren’t found only in school. As a kid, my chief literary mentor was the rock critic Lester Bangs, who wrote for Creem magazine and The Village Voice in the seventies and early eighties. He shaped my nascent taste, and taught me to read much the way I still read now. And as much as I relied on his irresistible humor and wisdom for advice on how best to blow my birthday money at the Licorice Pizza record store, I sought him out still more to learn about books, in particular the forbidden and arcane books no conventional teacher would ever mention.

Lester Bangs was a wreck of a man, right up until his death in April of 1982, at the age of thirty-three. He was fat, sweaty, unkempt—an out-of-control alcoholic in torn jeans and a too-small black leather jacket; crocked to the gills on the Romilar cough syrup he swigged down by the bottle. He also had the most advanced and exquisite taste of any American writer of his generation, uneven and erratic as it was.

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

First time reading this topic, and Doc you have way of sharing some brilliant stuff!

Are there any topics you've posted that aren't worthwhile, because I haven't come across them yet.Nice job!

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Thu Aug 30, 2012 1:40 pm

promiseland wrote:First time reading this topic, and Doc you have way of sharing some brilliant stuff!

Are there any topics you've posted that aren't worthwhile, because I haven't come across them yet.Nice job!

Thanks!!

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Thu Aug 30, 2012 3:54 pm

First time reading this for me as well. I've read Lester Bangs before, but not this piece or the one on Lennon.I have always enjoyed his style of writing and content , and this was no exception.Belated thanks for posting DJC.

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Thu Aug 30, 2012 6:16 pm

Good Time Charlie wrote:When somebody starts remarking that Elvis was fat when he saw him in 1971 it is clear he's talking rubbish.

As for the rest of it, It didn't strike any sort of resonance with me. He doesn't even come close to writing the greatest Presley obituary.

Agree.

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Thu Aug 30, 2012 6:51 pm

Xaykev wrote:

Good Time Charlie wrote:When somebody starts remarking that Elvis was fat when he saw him in 1971 it is clear he's talking rubbish.

As for the rest of it, It didn't strike any sort of resonance with me. He doesn't even come close to writing the greatest Presley obituary.

Agree.

Same here.

And, uh, 35 years and many of us still care. (I shouldn't count myself in that, as I've only been a fan for 33.)

Brian

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Thu Aug 30, 2012 9:40 pm

Your loss, fellows. His writing on this is nothing short of brilliant. I'm sorry you guys cannot see it.

Re: Lester Bangs - "How Long Will We Care?" August 1977

Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:00 pm

drjohncarpenter wrote:Your loss, fellows. His writing on this is nothing short of brilliant. I'm sorry you guys cannot see it.

I might look deeper if he knew the difference between a subject and an object (as in, parts of speech).